Federal Disaster Assistance Coordination Act

What this does

The bill rewrites Section 1223 of the Disaster Recovery Reform Act of 2018 to order studies, not to change any benefit. Within 2 years, the FEMA Administrator must conduct a study and develop a plan to make the collection of information from disaster assistance applicants and grantees less burdensome, duplicative, and time consuming. FEMA must also develop a plan for the regular collection and public reporting of federal disaster assistance awarded, including a public website. Separately, FEMA must convene a working group with the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, Transportation, Commerce, the Small Business Administration, OMB, and inspectors general to identify duplication in preliminary damage assessments after disaster declarations, and to determine whether one agency could make those assessments for all. That group must consider emerging technologies such as unmanned aircraft systems to speed the assessments. FEMA must submit one comprehensive report to the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee and the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, post it publicly on FEMA's website, and brief Congress on request within 180 days.